"Now that Obama's elected, the Jews are going to lose all their clout" - Jesse Jackson, 2008
Hillary Clinton may have given the opening salvo, but President Obama finally came out with a statement that left no doubt where this is heading:
President Barack Obama said Thursday that the deadly Israeli raid on an aid flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip was "tragic", but he stopped short of condemning the actions of Israeli forces.
While Obama said the deaths of nine people were unnecessary, he said the U.S. wants to wait for "an investigation of international standards" to determine the facts. Israel, he said, should agree to such an investigation.
"They recognize that this can't be good for Israel's long-term security," Obama said in an interview with CNN's Larry King airing Thursday night.{...}
Obama said the most recent incident presents an opportunity for all parties involved to break out of the current impasse and move toward a two-state solution in which Palestinians and Israelis can live peacefully side by side.
"We have been trying to do this piecemeal for decades now," Obama said. "It just doesn't work."
Note the parts of the president's statement I highlighted.
The 'investigation of international standards' Obama mentioned is already being conducted - by the infamous UN Human Rights Commission. Yesterday, the UNHRC adopted a resolution "to dispatch an independent international fact-finding mission to investigate violations of international law, including humanitarian and human rights law, resulting from the Israeli attacks on the flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian assistance."
Just to reassure paragons of human rights like Libya and Iran that the 'investigation' was going to be conducted without even a pretense of impartiality, the resolution stated: "the Human Rights Council ... condemns in the strongest terms the outrageous attack by the Israeli forces."
No sense having any suspense about the outcome,right?
True the Obama administration voted against the HRC resolution,(along with the Dutch and the Italians, while 8 other countries, including the French, the Belgians, the Japanese, the Brits, and the South Koreans abstained) but it refused to use it position on the Council to impede in any way the numerous breaches in procedure involved in ramming this through. The council has never held an "urgent debate" on any human rights issue at all until now, and the UNHRC's specific requirements for holding "special sessions" were ignored without any American objection. This special session was held in spite of UNHRC rules at the specific request of the states of the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
That's the 'investigation of international standards' Obama is insisting Israel submit itself to...another Goldstone travesty in which any semblance of justice is ignored in favor of demonizing Israel.
The second part of the President's statement is also quite illustrative of where's he going. Does anyone who can read between the lines doubt that he plans to try to impose a settlement on Israel on the Arab's terms?
The Israelis are simply going to have to say no at some point.
And the message this sends to both our friends and our enemies is unmistakable.
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